The present invention relates generally to a displaying apparatus, a displaying method, a displaying program, and a recording medium which holds the displaying program; and more particularly to a car navigation system. The invention envisages starting to scroll a display in response to scroll instructions by zooming out on the object being displayed, then either zooming in on the object of interest until its initial scale is restored before ending the scroll, or terminating the scroll so as to zoom in on the object until its initial scale is restored, whereby the ease of use in scrolling displays is improved.
Generally, car navigation systems display maps for guiding the user to the desired destination. Such car navigation systems scroll the map display in accordance with the user's operations, allowing the user to search for or check the location of interest.
Various improvements in the technique of scrolling have been proposed. Illustratively, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2000-292194 discloses ways to improve the ease of scrolling by changing the scroll speed in keeping with the user's operations.
When it is desired on a typical car navigation system to display a location farther than the currently displayed location, it takes a correspondingly longer time to scroll the display to look up the desired location. This can lower the ease of use of the system. If the speed of scroll is raised too high, it becomes difficult for the user to keep track of what is being displayed. This can be another factor contributing to the worsening of the ease of use.
Scrolling the display over a long distance often makes it difficult for the user to grasp the geographical relations between the currently displayed location and the desired destination. This can be yet another factor responsible for reducing the ease of use of the car navigation system. The difficulty in keeping track of the geographical changes being displayed is highlighted if the user has a poor sense of the locality regarding the currently displayed location or the desired destination or if the scale of the map is not displayed.
In order to counter such disadvantages, it has been proposed that the car navigation system zoom out on the currently displayed location on the map and scroll the display to get the desired destination displayed at the center, before zooming in on the location of interest so as to restore the initial scale of the map. With its zoom-out procedure, the proposed technique can shorten the time to scroll the display. The zoom-out display further allows the user to keep track of the geographical relations between the currently displayed location and the desired destination. However, it may be quite bothersome for the user to carry out such zoom-out, scroll, and zoom-in operations. While the car is on the move, practicing the proposed technique may even jeopardize the user's safe driving.